Very interesting gathering last night at Social Media Club Boston, many thanks to Todd Van Hoosear and the SMC team for putting it all together. You could have followed the event live last night or catch up through the Twitter feeds of Doug Haslam, Greg Peverill-Conti, or Steve Garfield. It was great to see all these folks and I wish I hadn’t had to run out at the break to finish up some work. I’m looking forward to catching up on everyone else’s thoughts later today when I land in sunny FLA.
There was one question however that kept me thinking the rest of the evening and into this morning, I apologize for not knowing who asked the question and I hope he finds this post and lets me know. The question was; if whomever wins the election will continue to participate in social media past November? The whole room nodded and most folks had the opinion that after November the candidate has what they need from you and they won’t worry about that until re-election. Unfortunately, I agree and I also think we are guilty of that in the business world.
UPDATE: Bryan Person left a comment and let me know that it was John Johansen who asked the great questions, thanks John (and Bryan!).
Often times social media is looked at as a way to ‘launch’ a product. I can’t tell you how many beta invites I’ve gotten for sites through social media engagement and never heard from them again, not even to tell me it is GA. Social media is not a project that can be wrapped up at a particular time, it is organic, two-way and engaging through its nature. Those traits make it the perfect platform to continue a conversation, whether it is between two customers or 100 million voters. Engaging your audience using social media and then letting them go after you get what you need is tantamount to tele-marketing.
How could a sitting President continue to engage with me using social media, even if I did not vote for him or her?
- Establish a core Government 2.0 volunteer squad, responsible for regional social media activities directed through the President’s eCommunications team;
- Create regional Ning groups hosted by these Gov 2.0 folks, providing local updates of what federal legislation means for the folks in an area;
- Get these folks up on Twitter or a similar platform to stream the latest news and information from the administration AND to create Tweet-ups to discuss policy and politics;
- Let’s see a blog, particularly if the First “Lady” is an ex-President;
How could your President engage with you through social media?
/kff
3 Responses
Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.
Kyle, I was thinking about blogging on this very topic. It was John Johansen – http://originalcomment.blogspot.com/ – who asked the question about whether the next president will continue his or her work in social media AFTER the election.
It’s a fascinating question, but I think it’s also one that we can’t just pin on the politicians. I know I’m certainly guilty of not paying nearly as much attention to politics outside of the election cycles, and I’m definitely not alone. The election ends, and we move on to the “next thing.” Well, maybe in 2009, the next thing needs to be for us — we the people — to continue to stay engaged in the political process and to pressure the next president to keep going with his or her social media efforts.
I’m going to keep noodling over this one. Thanks for raising it here.
Thanks Bryan, I updated the post.
Another thought as I was driving around today…if social media has had the biggest impact on fundraising in the ‘08 campaigns how will the winner take what they have learned about fiscal responsibility and social media and apply it to their administration?
/kff
Continuing the Discussion